The Light in the Center of Their Universe: Between The Pages
by The Annoynomous Writer
Summary: Welcome to Between the Pages, my collection of one-shots of ideas that were either too short to be in my main story or would too jarring to put in my main story. This will be more slice of life happenings in the lair or introspective stories about the characters themselves. It is marked as complete but there will be more to come.
1. Hikari on Wheels

A/N: Welcome to Between the Pages, my collection of one-shots of ideas that were either too short to be in the main story or wouldn't fit too well with the main story.

I will be marking this as Complete but there will be one-shots showing up based on the time of the story or whatever ideas I come up with. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

* * *

**This takes place between "The Rebirth of Hikari" and "Turtle Temper"**

* * *

It had been a few days now on Earth since she was rescued and given a new name: Hikari. Her nights were still unsettling, she'd wake up shaking and checking her wrists. But she started to get used to her new life in the sewers as the turtles called it. The boys did their best to help acclimate to all the new Earth things she had to know about. Eating was a standard and not just a social practice, and there were different types of foods for different purposes. However, she still couldn't figure out if she should follow Donnie's or Mikey's explanations on the matter. Either way, she joined the family for all three meals which they insisted. Mikey was surprisingly serious about her trying every kind of food they could find, which were… interesting to say the least.

Food wasn't the only thing she learned about on Earth. Donnie took pride in his lessons and made sure to teach her every aspect of Earth's education, from the cultures of its habitants to the physical structure of the planet itself. Humans fascinate her since there were so many variations, April was more than interesting to learn about. When it came to the actual education part, she was really lucky that most Mathematics and Sciences were the same. In fact, her education on these topics seemed to be far more advanced than Earth's. She didn't do well during her time in class, but she could definitely keep up with Donnie if she wanted to.

Raph was still warming up to her. Although he no longer saw her as a threat, he didn't make any real effort other than her parkour lessons. He helped her adapt to the Earth's gravity and recalibrate her agility to work on Earth. Since gravity on Earth was higher than her homeworld, she needed to learn new tricks to help her keep up. Raph was relentless but she eventually nailed it down.

Her time with Leo was the most enjoyable. It was right up in her element. If there was one thing she knew she wanted since she was a spark, it was fighting. Raph had the muscle, but Leo had skills, unlike anything she'd seen. They sparred together as she started seeing the similarities and differences between their two styles, she was taught to spot every advantage she could find and exploit it. Leo's focused on disarming the enemy and putting his opponents at a disadvantage before striking. They started to learn from each other and covered up the weaknesses in each other's strategy. Hikari started looking forward to their session every day, wondering what else she could learn from him.

For how different each turtle was, there were a lot things they all had in common. Besides their love of adventure and pizza, they also loved skateboarding. It was also one of the few things they all agreed they wanted her to learn. The four of them brought their boards with them as they led Hikari to a nearby tunnel. When they first showed her one of their skateboards, she thought she knew what it is.

"Oh! You have these here too. Though I'm not sure about the wheels at the bottom, it seems counterintuitive." Hikari eagerly put the board on the ground and stood on it like she did back home. Only it wasn't moving, no matter how hard she told it to.

The turtles, on the other hand, were confused. One moment they saw the same excitement she always had when they got her to try something new, but the next it seemed she was stumped by a board with wheels on the ground.

"Why isn't it flying?" She asked. That question and the cluelessness in her voice had the turtles burst out laughing at her.

Raph did his best to catch his breath but the look on her face and the tears from all the laughing made it difficult, "You…You thought skateboards fly?"

"Skateboards? Is that what they're called here? We called them speed pads."

"Speed pads?" Mikey scoffed, "I would've called it something way cooler."

"Hey! It worked, sparks like us needed some way to travel since you know, no wings." She pointed to her empty back before crossing her arms with indignation, "I also happened to be the best in my cluster."

"Go ahead then." Donnie stepped aside along with his brother, playfully bowing to egg her on.

Hikari wasn't going to let that go, but standing on the board still for the last three minutes wasn't helping her. She looked at Leo and whined helplessly, "Leo…"

While he and his brothers were more than happy to see how she would fail, Leo was at least willing to give her a fighting chance. "Just kick off and stay balanced." Leo instructed and demonstrated it.

Watching him do it gave her a general idea, doing it herself was a completely different story. She put her feet on the ground and kicked off. The moment the board moved her body forward spelt the end, she couldn't pull her foot back in time or keep balanced on the skateboard. She flailed her arms around as her body kept alternating before leaning too far back or tilting forwards, desperate to regain some control.

None of that saved her. The board rolled away behind her while she flew forwards face-first into the concrete floor. The turtles all howled with laughter as she picked herself up.

"You'll get there." Leo said. Although she couldn't feel the sentiment when he was standing there with a few chuckles left in his throat.

Hikari looked back at them, all of them with barely concealed grins on their faces. "You all are the worst." She hissed and got back on the board again. She tried kicking off a little less and slower this time, which worked as she managed to travel half an inch without losing balance before creeping to a halt. She was really hoping that the bit of motion was enough to get the board moving on its own.

Raph smirked, "You know, you gotta keep kicking to make it work."

"I _really_ don't need the commentary, Raphael."

"Snowflake's got an edge."

"Snowflake?" She looked at him unimpressed as she tried again, this time with a little more force and that sent her falling backward as the board zipped under her.

She gritted her teeth and tried again. But it didn't work so well either, or the other eighteen times. As funny as it was to watch her fail, Leo could see the frustration building inside her, "Look. Maybe you're just not cut out for skateboarding?"

That was the wrong thing to say since she marched right up to his face with a challenging glare, "Are you suggesting I quit?"

"No! I'm suggesting… you try something else?" Leo put his hands up nervously, like he needed any form of protection from this alien girl who barely passed his shoulder, "I mean, we already have four skateboarders, do we really need another one?"

Hikari didn't respond to that. Instead, she backed off with a huff and headed towards the nearest manhole, "Fine. You guys have fun, I'm going to hang out with April"

"Tell her I said hi!" Donnie shouted as she walked away.

* * *

Ever since the day they became friends, Hikari knew that April was someone she could depend on. Their friendship only grew closer as they slowly became confidants for each other. Sometimes they needed someone to talk to about all the madness that suddenly was their lives, and they were the only ones who'd listen.

April knew that Hikari was in a sour mood when she showed up, so she decided to take her out into Central Park. She hoped some greenery and a fresh location would help calm Hikari down.

Hikari was amazed at the lush greenery in contrast to the monolithic buildings that made up New York City. Earth was a fascinating mashup of contradictions and her curiosity would normally take her mind away from most things in life, but the humiliation she felt today wasn't one of them.

"Could you believe it? They were laughing the whole time and Leo even suggested I give up!" Hikari vented, "I'm not giving up."

April listened carefully and she was a little worried. Hikari was pretty determined but she probably wouldn't have the patience to retrain her body and muscle memory for skateboarding, especially since she was doing this to mostly prove the turtles wrong.

"Well… Sometimes you need a different route." April suggested, "Skateboarding might not be for you but that doesn't mean that you're giving up. There is more than one way to do it."

Just then, a group of teenagers sped past them. They were laughing and goofing around, slipping around the other people walking and jumping over cracks or rocks. Hikari was mesmerized by their movements and the unique shoes they were wearing, "Woah, what are those?"

"Roller skates. They're pretty common too." April answered.

"Where can I get one of these?"

The two left Central Park to go looking for some skates, but reality had a harsh reminder for them when they started browsing around the shops. "How do humans afford things like these? We literally got most of my outfits with half this price." Hikari sighed as she looked at the tag. This was one of the cheaper pairs she had found but it was still much considering she had little to no money to spend.

"Welcome to Earth." April remarked.

After checking six different shops with no real result, Hikari came up with another idea, "Ok. Plan B."

* * *

April wasn't really happy when she found out what Hikari meant by plan B. Out of all the ways she could've spent the day, digging through trash at the local junkyard was nowhere even on the list.

"You know the odds of finding a pair that work is insanely low, right?" April said as she searched through her pile. So far, she found three broken lamps, way too many damaged phones, and general trash.

"Look, humans always throw out nice things. Plus, people don't go scavenge around trash…besides us." Hikari shrugged as she continued searching through the next pile, "I've seen the guys do this, they find all kinds of stuff and they make it work. That's what Donnie does. I don't see why I can't fix up a pair of roller skates."

They weren't sure how long they were searching through the trash but finding six different pairs that either didn't fit or too broken to fix wasn't inspiring a lot of hope. Finally, Hikari noticed another pair and pulled it out of the black trash bag it was in. It has a black and white boot and four small wheels in a row. She looked over them and noticed that they looked used but in much better condition than the others she and April had found so far.

"Wow, these pair actually look good enough to wear." April noted when she saw the skates.

Hikari sat down on the ground and tried putting them on, they fit her well enough for shoes found in the trash. She tried standing up which ended pretty miserably with her legs sliding apart and her face falling flat on the dirt. "Now we just need a helmet." She muttered as she rolled onto her back to take the skates off.

* * *

Since Hikari wanted to prove to the turtles that she could do it on her own, she decided to teach herself how to do it in secret. Unfortunately, it meant that she could only do it when she was with April. After watching a bunch of videos, April took her to one of the safest places she could practice at. They made it back to Central Park and found a secluded area off the path to practice. Hikari sat down on the grass as she put on her skates, took a moment to build some courage while April coached her, "Now, just like the videos. Bring your legs to the side and try to push yourself up."

It took her a few tries but she managed to squat and rise up into a standing position with her own shaking legs. Following the videos, she had the back of her skates leaning against one another in a V-formation as she took slow steps across the grass.

"You're kinda getting there." April said.

Hikari beamed with pride, "This already feels better than skateboarding."

Soon, Hikari felt confident enough to try skating on the path. It was harder to keep balance but she managed minuscule strides as she skated a foot down the path before falling over. She stood up and immediately tried again. Her attempts were getting better as she managed to move further down before her knees locked up and sent her to the ground.

The sun was setting as orange light blanketed the park. April checked her phone for the time, "I gotta go, my aunt's expecting me for dinner."

Hikari was a little conflicted, she was getting into it and she wasn't ready to leave yet. "I think I'll be fine for now. I just wanna get this one thing down and I'll head back."

April wasn't on board with that, "You sure? You've never been up here by yourself."

"There hasn't been a single person who bothered us this entire time we were here." Hikari said, "Don't worry, I'll head straight for the others if anything strange happens."

"If you say so." April then pulled out some coins from her pocket, "Here's some change in case you need to call."

Hikari looked at the coins April gave her, "You don't have to keep giving us coins."

After April left, she turned her focus back to skating. She took a deep breath and paid attention to every step and movement she made.

"You're way too tense." A raspy voice commented from behind.

"Ah!" Hikari flailed after losing focus, she tried to recover but she fell backward as she felt the back of her helmet smacked onto the ground.

She groaned as she sat back up, looking behind her to see a human boy with a very odd fashion sense that reminded her of those high school dramas April got her to watch. He was dressed in black with a black and white bandana around his forehead.

"You gotta let loose and put your trust in the blades, can't work 'em if you can't trust 'em." The boy gave a cocky smile, revealing a gap in his front teeth, "Name's Casey Jones, first lesson's free."

Hikari had no intention of talking to him. Splinter constantly reminded her how important it was to keep their identities hidden from others, especially when she wasn't sure if they could be trusted or not. As far as she was concerned, the only human she trusted was April.

Casey wasn't impressed by her cold shoulder, "Not much of a talker, Ice Queen?"

Hikari rolled her eyes at that. This boy reminded her so much of Raph that she couldn't hold her tongue, "Why do people keep calling me things like that?"

"She speaks!" He said dramatically, "I was wondering if you're ignoring me."

"Because that worked so well." She responded sarcastically as she took off her skates.

"C'mon, I'm just being nice."

"Thank you, but I'm fine." She quickly put her sneakers back on and carried her skates in her hand, "I need to go."

Casey watched as the girl rushed out of the area, he knew when he wasn't wanted. So, he just shrugged at let the Ice Queen go. Although, he did wish he'd gotten her name after giving some good advice like that.

* * *

After close to two weeks of constant practice, she finally had the chance to prove herself when she spotted the turtles were getting ready to go skateboarding through the sewer. She ran over to them and asked, "Can I come too?"

Leo was surprised to hear her ask that, especially since she had turned down more lessons on skateboarding, "Sure. I just didn't think you wanted to after…"

"You mean after she totally ate dirt." Mikey finished, making Donnie and Raph chuckle.

This time, Hikari wasn't going to let them antagonize her. She crossed her arms confidently, "We'll see, go on ahead. I'll meet you at the same tunnel."

The turtles were suspicious but didn't press her on it. They left and Hikari went back to her room to bring out the skates she had been hiding. She put them on after she passed the turnstile and her legs were still shaking a little as she stood up. The advice the boy had given her was ringing in her head, she decided to listen to it rather than fighting it. She let herself relax as she started skating down with ease, "Well, what do you know? Skater boy's got a point."

She soon saw the tunnel where the brothers were at and smiled. She picked up speed as she zipped right by them.

"Woah!" The turtles heard the noise coming but they didn't expect it at all when they saw Hikari zoom right by them.

She stopped her skates with a heel-turn and flashed a proud grin, "What's up, boys?"

The boys all looked astonished while she inwardly thanked the stars above that she didn't wobble that time. Donnie snapped out of his thoughts and just asked, "How?"

"I took your advice, Leo." She smiled at Leo, who blushed, before turning around and skating off into the tunnels, "Try and keep up!"

"All right!" Mikey had the biggest grin on his face as he plopped down his board and started playing catch up. The others did the same and they all spent the rest of the day blazing through the sewers as their laughter echoed around them.


	2. The Stealth Exam

**This takes place between I think His Name is Baxter Stockman and Monkey Brains**

* * *

Hikari sat in the dojo in front of Splinter and the turtles. Today was an important one for her and she made sure she prepared herself for the test ahead. She chose a tank top and bike shorts and ditched her normal braid for a tight hair bun. She was determined to pass this test with flying colors and she needed every advantage she could get.

"Today we will be testing your stealth, you have proven yourself in combat. But a ninja works unseen and they must know how to choose their battles wisely. I have asked my sons to help devise an exercise for you." Splinter spoke before gesturing for Leo to explain the test.

Leo cleared his throat and handed her a piece of paper, "You will be trying to take one thing each from us, the items you need to get are on this list. For the sake of the test, we didn't move them from where they normally would be. But we will be hunting you down with theses." Leo then showed her the bows and plastic arrows they used on Raph a while back, "If you make it back to the dojo with all the items without getting hit, you pass the test."

"We aren't gonna go easy on ya." Raph smirked, "Getting three out of four on this list would still be impressive."

Hikari looked over the list Leo gave her and scoffed at the first item on the list, "The last piece of pizza in the fridge? You're joking, right? Mikey's gonna eat it before I even start."

"Do not worry. Michelangelo understands that it is part of the training and will _not_ eat it until it is over." Master Splinter reassured her and gave a stern look at Mikey.

Mikey got the hint and slumped in defeat, "Hai, sensei."

Hikari's confidence started to drop as she read through the list, "Wow, you're not kidding..."

Donnie gave her a knowing smile, "We'll give you a ten-second headstart."

"Good luck, Hikari." Master Splinter said.

Hikari bowed before running out of the dojo. The turtles smirked as they loaded their quivers and arrows. Today was going to a fun day.

* * *

She leaped up and hid behind the pipes above their home, which was the first place she thought of. That also meant that it wasn't safe, the turtles were one step ahead and already looking around above them. They each have a bow and an arrow in hand, scanning the ceiling for any signs of her. She crawled across the pipes, flinching and hiding when she noticed one of the brothers looking up at her direction.

The one advantage she had was that they had no idea whose item she would go after first. But that wouldn't matter if they all stuck close to each other in the pit. She decided to get out of the lair first and figure out her plan of attack.

Leo's was the easiest, purely because it was very nonspecific. Hikari only needed to steal one of his Space Heroes comics, but that was not to say it was easy either. Unlike his brothers, Leo didn't just leave his things around the lair. He kept most of his possessions in his room, which meant she not only had to sneak past a group of highly skilled ninjas on their home, but also possibly break into Leo's room which she would be surprised if it wasn't locked.

Raphael must've been feeling cruel when he wrote down his item. He challenged her to get the red mask on his face. She was already dreading it, trying to find any way to get that mask off without getting into conflict with him. She knew why he chose it, Raph always wanted a good fight. It figured he would choose something that would force her into combat, and she knew he would win if it came down to raw strength.

She didn't know what to do about Mikey's item. It was a deceptively easy task at first glance, but she knew better after living with them for so long. The challenge wasn't getting it from the fridge, it was keeping it away from Mikey without him finding her.

Donnie's laptop being on the list was expected but that also meant he knew exactly how to defend it. Out of all the items on that list, she was worried about Donnie's the most because she had no idea what to expect.

She waited until the brothers left the pit to scout out Donnie's lab. Just before she pulled the lab door open, she saw a white string hovering taut above the floor. She snuck a peek through the crack of the door and her jaw dropped. The laptop was sitting right there in view, but that was obviously intentional to hide the vast amount of toy guns and turrets by the walls. All of them were loaded and aiming at the door. Even if she activated the traps from outside, the sounds would reveal her location and her next target. She wondered how Donnie even set all of this up, but then shook her head when her mind went 'of course, it's Donnie.'

She needed to get him a new hobby.

Hikari quickly made it back into the shadows before anyone could spot her. She stuck to the walls and jumped over the turnstiles, disappearing into the tunnels. As she moved through the familiar path, she started thinking about her next course of action. She had to beat them at this mind game, and she really didn't want to lose.

* * *

The longer she thought about it, the more she was winding herself up with anxiety. Her knowledge of them only managed to make her nervous since she could practically see how they could corner her no matter what she tried to do. In the end, she decided to just pick something and try from that.

Her heart raced as she peeked around with every step she took, they could be anywhere and they wouldn't show her any mercy if she was caught. She snuck a look behind the turnstiles and spotted Mikey and Raph were patrolling the main area. She couldn't stay in one place for long. She didn't see Donnie or Leo, so they might be in another room or out in the sewers looking for her.

She waited until the two weren't looking to move down the steps and hide behind the pillar with the arcade machine. She made her way back up to the pipes and she'll forever thank her natural flexibility as well as all the training she went through. She crawled above their heads and slid down onto the top of the fridge. She dropped down onto her knees and hid behind the island counter. She waited a few seconds, wondering if she needed to dodge any incoming arrows. Luckily, neither of the two had stopped their patrol. She opened one of the drawers and grabbed a ziplock bag, making a mental note to get more for Donnie to make up for using his precious resource. She opened the fridge and smiled at her prize, her nimble hands opened the bag and slipped the pizza into the bag.

She was so glad that she forgot about the fridge door. The door shut with a subtle clang, but that might as well had been a siren for a group of ninjas. Hikari's eyes widened with panic as Raph looked over suspiciously, "I think she's back in the lair."

Sewer apples. She kept listening to the two of them while she tried to move her locked body. Even without looking over the counter, she could picture Mikey's confusion as he said, "I don't see her."

"Well if you did, she'd already failed." Raph responded, "Now go find Donnie and Leo, she's probably going for the pizza."

Crud, she didn't expect to get caught so soon. She tried to calm her nerves. She had to think fast before Raph finds her. She frantically scanned the room for anything to help her, her gaze landed on a cabinet that she remembered seeing flour. She didn't have time to second guess, so she just acted, grabbing the barely touched bag of flour and dumping it onto the floor.

* * *

Raph walked over to the kitchen with a proud smirk. There was no way she could sneak past them on their home turf, the four of them had been doing this way longer than she had been. With his bow drawn back, he approached the island counter when he heard a loud tumble and he was suddenly in the middle of a white smoke screen. He quickly got out of it, rubbing his eyes and coughing. His vision cleared enough that he spotted her bolting out of the kitchen and dived into the waterway.

"Raph? What happened?" Donnie asked as he rushed in with Leo and Mikey following right behind him.

"She went into the water. Come on!" Raph moved towards the pool before Leo stopped him.

"Hold on, Raph. Think about it. She can't stay as long in the water as us. She'll have to come back up soon." Leo pointed out, "Donnie, you got a map of the sewers on you?"

Donnie nodded and pulled out a map he prepared for this exercise, "So, she went through the waterway. Through my past examinations on her, she has a slightly bigger lung capacity than an average human. Given her speed both in and out of the water, I'd say we have a four-foot search radius around here."

"All right. Donnie and Raph, you're with me. Mikey, stay here and guard the lair. She might come back before we find her. Operation: Lights Outs is a go." Leo said with a pose while his brother groaned behind him.

"Seriously, bro?" Mikey whined, "Let the naming stuff to me."

* * *

Hikari kept swimming as fast as she could, not even turning back in case she saw one of them right behind her. Her lungs started to ache as more air was escaping through her nose. She swam upwards and let out a loud gasp as she breached the surface. She took a few deep breaths as she kept her eye on the water, waiting to see if any of them followed her. It was only a matter of time before the others caught up to her. She got out of the water and listened for anyone coming her way. Once the coast was clear, she kept moving through the tunnels and went over what went wrong in her head.

Hikari definitely underestimated how seriously they all were taking it. They were actively hunting her down, and they weren't treating this as a game… Well, Mikey probably was, the other three were treating this like a competition. She wasn't sure if she could beat all of them, especially if they're working together. That was when she realized, they probably doubted her too.

It took her some time to plan it out, but Hikari had finally thought of a working strategy. The plan required a lot of timing and luck, so she really hoped she knew them as well as she thought she did.

* * *

Leo, Donnie, and Raph started heading back after going through their search for a while, they knew she had to come back to the lair soon and they didn't want Mikey to be the only one guarding the place for long. After looking over the list they made for her, Leo was a little curious as to how she was going to pull it off. Raph wasn't kidding about making it difficult for her, they even made a bet between the four of them about who'd be the one to shoot her down so there was pizza on the line for this.

Leo was on his way to check on his room when he smelled pizza and noticed a couple of broken hairpin on the ground. He ran to the door and sure enough, the lock had been picked open. Although he was proud of how fast she was picking up the skills they taught her, he was surprised by how sloppy she was.

Leo approached his brother with the hairpins he found, "She got my door open, she probably took one of my comics by now."

Raph was not happy to hear that. He already had an idea that Leo was going easy on her by picking something so simple. But he wasn't going to actually confront Leo about it, his big brother's awkward crush was a can of worms and algae he really didn't want to touch.

Raph spotted her dropping down from the wooden spiral, "There she is!"

Raph rushed at her with the force of a subway train, but the lack of panic in her eyes made Leo hesitate. "Raph, wait!" He called out, but Raph wasn't stopping.

Donnie tried shooting arrows at her, she dodged them and kept her eyes on the prize. As Raph made a move to pin her against the lab door, she grabbed the sliding door and yanked at it while she rolled out of the way. The door nearly slid off its rails as it was flung open and the trips were set off.

"Hit the deck!" Donnie screamed and ducked. A barrage of plastic form bullets came flying out of the lab. Leo and Mikey shouted in terror as they all dove to the ground while the bullets sped past their shells.

"Dang, Donnie. Talk about overkill…" Mikey muttered as he pulled off a few bullets that stuck themselves to his shell.

Meanwhile, Raph was having a much tougher time. His stubbornness and rash decision got him tangled up in one of Donnie's web traps that he put up to snare her in. Hikari took advantage of the confusion to slip into the lab and closed the door, all while being wary of any other traps that hadn't been set off.

She was pleased to see Raph caught in a trap and grabbed a rag from one of the workstations. She approached Raph from the side and stuffed the rag into his mouth before he could call out to his brothers.

"Hey!" She could make out his muffled shouts, but there was no way the others could hear him unless they came in.

"Thank you kindly." She smirked as she pulled his red mask off his face and went over to Donnie's table to snag the laptop. Instead of leaving immediately, she found a hiding place right by the door. She knew the other three were going to come in and investigate.

Sure enough, they opened the door and came running in when they saw Raph in the trap. Hikari slipped out of the lab while they were busy laughing at Raph. She was halfway to the dojo by the time she heard footsteps behind her. Without thinking, she kept the laptop close to her chest as she made a diving roll into the dojo.

Once she saw Splinter sitting calmly with a look of approval, she let out a sigh and flopped onto the mat in exhaustion.

* * *

Now that the test was over, Hikari kneeled before Splinter with the turtles by his side as he gave his evaluation. "You overcame your doubts and used it to your favor. You have done well, Hikari." He said with pride.

"Thank you, sensei." She bowed before she started returning each item to their rightful owners. She started with Raph's mask since she was a little uncomfortable seeing his face naked like that. "Gotta say, you guys keeping an eye around like that didn't make it easy."

Raph grabbed the red cloth and put it back on his face, "You got really lucky this time. Nice job, snowflake."

"Wow, Raph. You might actually convince me you have a heart." She laughed.

She then handed Donnie his laptop back, "By the way, please show me how you made all those traps so quickly."

"Sure, I just need you to sign an agreement to never use it on me." Donnie said seriously.

"I'll get back to you on that." She turned to Leo with his comic in hand, "Here you go, Leo."

Leo took the comic back and smiled, "You're becoming more like a ninja every day."

"Thank you." It was something she really wanted to hear. All her hard work was paying off and hearing them recognize her as a ninja gave her more assurance about her place in the team.

"Yeah, you're one of us now." Mikey beamed with stuffed cheeks.

"Aww, Mikey-" She paused when she saw his puffed cheeks and the zip-lock bag in his hand, she searched her pockets but the pizza was gone. She was completely baffled, "Wait… how did you get that?"

Splinter chuckled at her bemusement, "You still have much to learn, Hikari."

* * *

A/N: Mikey continues to befuddle everyone with his mad skills, including me.

I actually really enjoyed writing this chapter because I had to mentally put myself into the headspace of someone trying their best to win a game against a team that outclassed me. It was what made me change the chapter into one with more tension and anxiety. Hikari isn't up against enemies she could fight, she's facing her friends who she knows well and knows her well.

Also, this chapter forced me to look up a map of the lair to get a sense of where she could hide. I found a very interesting one that I will use for the rest of the series. Let me know if you want to see it since I can't add links to this site.

Please feel free to leave some comments to share some love. Feedback and reviews give me life and motivation.


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